The Lead with Jake Tapper: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) Is Interviewed About Online Safety Act To Protect Kids On Social Media
Interview
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As a former attorney general for 20 years in Connecticut and a former federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney there, I have perhaps more faith than you do, but I'm not relying on faith in attorneys general. We, in fact, have met that criticism by narrowing the duty of care so that now it applies to very specific kinds of toxic content that are driven toward kids, and that the big tech companies have a duty to reduce. And remember, Jake, that those organizations that formerly oppose many of them now have dropped their opposition.
We have 32 of our colleagues co-sponsoring it, more than double the number during the last session, reflecting that increased momentum that we see and the diminished opposition. There were some suggestions that enabled us to clarify this legislation and make it so that the burden is on big tech to be held accountable, but also more tools, more means for parents to disconnect those algorithms and for children to take back their online lives.
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I welcome new ideas and allies in making kids online safer. And certainly if those ideas come forward, we would incorporate them in our bill. Remember, to do age verification, there has to be data and information submitted, private, confidential data, whether it's passports or driver's licenses or some other means of data. And it goes then to a national database, or more likely as a gold mine of information to the big tech companies.
They already have so much information. Kids are their product, not their customer. They sell data or monetize it in gaining more advertisers. And so we want to protect kids and also put the burden on big tech, not on parents, to be the police force. Here we are in the midst of a mental health crisis. And big tech is, in effect, preying on the pain of teenagers having this repetitive, almost addictive content driven to them by the algorithms. And the default ought to be disabling the algorithm so that teens are better protected.
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Thank you.
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